Want to Take Better Notes? Get the Lead Out

One of the modern challenges for classroom teachers, especially at the college level, is how to deal with student use of laptops and other personal technology in the classroom. I know some instructors, at one end of the spectrum, who ban the use of all tablets and laptops except for specified group activities and others, at the opposite end, who take an "anything goes" approach.

The benefits and drawbacks of constant multitasking are complex, to be sure, especially given the results of a study last year published in Computers and Educationthat found that "secondhand multitasking"—in this case, being in view of someone who is bouncing between main and secondary tasks on a computer screen—may have even greater consequences on our attention and retention than our own multitasking habit:

"[H]aving multitaskers in view did have a considerable impact on learning. In fact, the negative consequences of observing multitasking were even greater than those of performing multitasking oneself (perhaps because the multitaskers could time their multitasking to suit their own needs), counter to students' expectations. Neither multitaskers nor their neighboring victims realized the cost of merely observing multitasking." Read More

Now, new research by Pam A. Mueller (Princeton) and Daniel M. Oppenheimer (UCLA) goes beyond the issue of distraction and multi-tasking to investigate the efficacy of tools used for the note taking process itself. The study of college students showed that one of the advantages of laptops—the speed with which they allow us to type word for word what is happening in a classroom or meeting—is also a drawback:

"The studies we report here show that laptop use can negatively affect performance on educational assessments, even—or perhaps especially—when the computer is used for its intended function of easier note taking. Although more notes are beneficial, at least to a point, if the notes are taken indiscriminately or by mindlessly transcribing content, as is more likely the case on a laptop than when notes are taken longhand, the benefit disappears."

Two of the results were better recall of conceptual information when taking notes by hand and improved test taking when students were allowed to review handwritten notes rather than laptop notes. The study's authors conclude by advising "a healthy dose of caution" for classroom laptop use, but Mueller is also quoted in ScienceDaily as saying, "I don't anticipate that we'll get a mass of people switching back to notebooks."

Even if we aren't prepared to sell our laptops for reams of college-ruled paper, students, parents, and teachers can consider studies such as these as they create their own habitats and habits that are more conducive to learning.

Students can pay attention to what works best to help them understand, remember, and recall information. One first year law student I know takes notes by hand in lectures but later transfers them to a Word file on his laptop, which makes them easier to study and read and also adds another layer of distillation.

Parents and students can borrow a technique from the longhand study and practice taking notes while watching TED Talks. Surprisingly, many high school students enter college with little practical skills or training in taking notes for a lecture course.

Teachers can consider sharing this kind of research with high school and college students in an informative "isn't this interesting?" kind of way rather than in a prescriptive way, thus better equipping those students with the knowledge they need to make good choices.

I think at the end of the day, the problem lies more with what's being taken down than the media through which it is done. People spend many years writing by hand, making the process a lot less complicated when combined with the acts of simultaneously listening, paraphrasing, summarizing and understanding. When typing (a skill that possibly requires more 'attention' from the brain due to a more complex application of a multi-directional motor skill) one tends to skip the steps that involve paraphrasing, summarizing and understanding. This leads to merely dictating mindlessly what is being said and thus less information is being committed effectively for the purpose of expanding knowledge. Perhaps applying the simpler skill of handwriting with digital media (as is already done with modern technology) is the answer to incorporating the advantages of the modern era with the efficiency of the pen-to-paper method.

Yes, I agree that it would be good to investigate whether using tablets to write (rather than type) notes is as effective as writing on paper. Interestingly, one thing the study looked at was whether telling students who typed the notes *not* to write verbatim notes made any difference, and it didn't. Even when the students were trying to take more thoughtful notes, they still acted as transcribers when they were using a laptop (which goes to your point about the differences in attention required when typing vs. handwriting).